DAVID FORD (AT THE SUMMER SPECIAL)

THERE WERE MANY SPECIAL MOMENTS TO BE HAD AT THE MOUTH MAGAZINE’S SUMMER SPECIAL CONCERT LAST FRIDAY NIGHT. IN CAFÉ INDIEPENDENT’S INTIMATE BASEMENT ROOM DAVID FORD’S CONFESSIONAL SONGWRITING AND SELF-DEPRECATING STAGE PRESENCE WERE CAPTIVATING.

Whether it was the heart-in-the-mouth lost-love hurt of THE WAY THE HEART BREAKS, the fist-clenching anger and building intensity of STATE OF THE UNION, the low-light high-heat bad-woman warnings in THE BALLAD OF MISS LILY or the poignant Waitsian nostalgia for a long-gone hometown pub in the half-spoken / half-sung O’SULLIVAN’S JUKEBOX, Ford won everybody over with his exceptional gift for emotionally resonant broad-appeal material. Ford has exactly the right voice for this open-chested honesty: a dented bell of an instrument, ringing off like a rusted Kentish Springsteen… Some of his set was performed on electric or acoustic guitar, some at his piano and some impressively built with complex loops of guitars, percussion, harmonica and keyboards (including a balls-out fun version of Bruce’s DANCING IN THE DARK). Nobody could ever accuse Ford of laziness, of faking it or of phoning it in…

Before ending his 80-minute Scunthorpe set with the defiant mission statement EVERY TIME, he’d warned the crowd he had little left he could give – but their deep appreciation brought him back out onto the stage… And the Ford magic happened. One of those precious moments you go to gigs in the hope of finding but rarely do… Incredibly, Ford took everybody upstairs into the venue’s coffee house space and played an impromptu medley of singalong classics during an intimate session round the battered old house piano… Highlights of the evening (including a ‘scratch’ recording of some of what happened upstairs after the main set) feature in a new edition of The Mouthcast alongside a brief catch-up interview. Audio player below this photo gallery…